Berlin Marathon

Berlin-Marathon

2005 Berlin Marathon

The Berlin Marathon is held annually on a late September
weekend in Germany's capital, Berlin. The marathon is
held on Sunday, handbikers and wheelchair starting before the
main runners' marathon. The inline skating event and a children's marathon
(800m) take place on Saturday. The marathon is operated by
SCC-RUNNING Events GmbH.

The 2007 Marathon took place on September 29 / 30 and was Berlin's largest ever. The
next Berlin Marathon will take place on September 27 / 28, 2007. (Note that from 2009
onwards, the Berlin Marathon will probably take place during July, not on the traditional
last weekend of September).

The 2007 Berlin Marathon results can be viewed on the
official website here.

Link

Berlin Marathon Route / Course

The marathon begins and ends at the Brandenburg Gate
and is of course 42.195 km in length (measured according to AIMS/IAAF
rules). A course map is available for download here.
Berlin is a very flat city with few noticeable hills, none of which lie
on the marathon's route, making for very fast times. The majority of
the course is located within the former West Berlin, but takes in the main
sights in the former East Berlin's city center.

The course starts off westwards through the
Tiergarten, passing the
Victory Column into the
Charlottenburg district before looping back
north and eastwards through the Moabit area.
Crossing the former path of the Berlin Wall
at Invalidenstrasse, runners continue via the
Torstrasse and
Karl-Marx-Allee, crossing the
Spree near
Treptower Park.

The marathon passes back into the former West Berlin at
Border Crossing Heinrich-Heine-Straße, curving through the
Neukölln and Kreuzberg
districts. Between kilometers 22 and 23 runners pass
Rathaus Schöneberg, site
of Kennedy's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner"
speech (will they be handing out free doughnuts?), then head out
into the comparatively suburban district of
Steglitz.

Around Nollendorfplatz the gay community might
be out to cheer runners on, who pass by towards Potsdamer Strasse
and then Potsdamer Platz, once more crossing
the line of the former Berlin Wall into the
Leipziger Strasse, before reaching the
Spreeinsel. Here runners can check out
the ruins of Erich Honecker's Palast der Republik
and the former GDR State Council Building before reaching
Unter den Linden, Berlin's monumental boulevard.
From there on the finishing line beyond the Brandenburg Gate is
visible straight ahead.